Pipes of sprinkler dry pipe systems are filled with compressed air or inert gas. Water does not get into the pipe network until after a sprinkler has been opened.
Suspended sprinklers, in particular for areas of a sprinkler system at risk of frost, are for example known from DE 28 26 141 A1. So that water can leave the open sprinkler even at low temperatures, filling materials such as granules, liquid, alcohol or brine can be fed into the pipe network upstream from the sprinkler so as to ensure that the water for firefighting can exit without any problems. In the document mentioned above, a solution is described where loose granules are arranged in the drop pipe of the sprinkler and discharged with the extinguishing water after the sprinkler has been triggered.
DE 10 2005 043213 B4 describes a sprinkler system for areas at risk of frost or cooled areas where water for firefighting and antifreeze are present in the pipes to the sprinkler, antifreeze being arranged in the lower part of the drop pipe upstream from the sprinkler in the area at risk of frost.
It is also common to use dry pipe sprinklers whose feed pipes are empty and without pressure. The water port is sealed mechanically by means of a rod or a pipe directly by the glass bulb arranged opposite that bursts at a certain temperature. The mechanically operated dry pipe sprinklers are preferred in practice since here there is no danger that water enters without being noticed which could lead the dry pipe sprinkler to fail at low temperatures.
Lever mechanisms in the context of fire extinguishing systems are basically known for dry alarm valves for sprinkler pipe networks and described for example in DE 43 20 443 C2 and DE 699 003 64 T2. Dry alarm valves in a sprinkler pipe network serve to separate the low air/gas pressure of the pipe network from the high pressure of the water supply and to release the valve to the water supply by means of a lever mechanism when the pressure in the sprinkler pipe network drops after opening a sprinkler, thus allowing extinguishing water to flow to the sprinklers.
A lever mechanism is also known for triggering a sprinkler. CH 662281 A for example describes a sprinkler where a lever arrangement serves as a triggering mechanism for a sprinkler.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,802,628 B1 reveals a lever mechanism at the upper end of a drop pipe that releases an opening in the extinguishing-water pipe when the sprinkler glass bulb is triggered.
US 2010/0038099 describes and illustrates a device for triggering a fire extinguishing system by means of a sprinkler, the device being arranged between the pipe for the extinguishing agent and the sprinkler. The device consists of a multiple-armed joint that deflects a force over the axis of a disk. However, the joint that has been described and illustrated is not a toggle-lever joint since the effects of a toggle lever (translation of a force or a distance)are not fulfilled by this device. Rather, the motion or the force is simply directed into a different direction by the device.
Although SU 1025435A shows a toggle lever joint that is arranged between a sprinkler and the associated deflector, this toggle-lever joint, too, is not a toggle-lever joint that is arranged between a sprinkler and a pipe for the extinguishing agent.